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Posts Tagged ‘Welsh Assembly Government’

Thanks For Supporting welshfoodbites

20 Jan

I’ve been neglecting on of my many duties which was to keep an eye on website  rankings. So today I have and thought I’d share them with you.

Welshfoodbites:    434,573

True Taste TV:   3,932,358 

True Taste:          1,967,526

(Ranking source Alexa taken over a 3 month period)

So thanks  for your support on welshfoodbites. With welshfoodbites on the highest rankings than Wag’s I can only say I’m delighted and I didn’t need their funding to do it!

Of course it’s more work  for me, but it does prove I’m doing something right – airing your views and problems which sadly are often down to wag. 

If I were Wag I’d be more than disappointed with the rankings on both my sites, but then if I were Wag I wouldn’t have two sites and increase the confusion. I’d also have on my sites things people really want to read and to learn about. 

I’m not sure whether the Welsh Assembly Government, WAG, will get the message – but they are certainly reading it otherwsie my rankings would be at their level!!

 
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Pembrokeshire Produce Direct – Accounts

21 Dec

I have received a copy of ‘Report and Unaudited Accounts for 30 November 2010 presented by the six directors. The company accountants were not instructed to carry out an audit or a review. The directors are satisfied that the company is entitled to exemption from the requirement to obtain an audit under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006.

Turnover/sales in 2010 was £173,712* as against £72,651 in 2009, cost of sales was £156,964 this year and £52,970 in 2009. This year their operating loss was £46,776 compared to £11,808 in 2009. The loss for 2010 was £44,296. I understand that the 2009 accounts are from trading starting in March.

In 2010, sales are listed as £163,980 with an addition of £9,732 for carriage outwards. As there was no carriage outwards shown in the 2009 figures, one can assume that this figure equates to  2,163 parcels at £4.50 each (the cost of carriage that PPD charges). This number of deliveries means over this 18 month period that the average number of deliveries per week was 27.

Also under Cost of Sales, carriage is listed once again as £14,838 for 2010 and £444.00 in 2009. Under Administration, postage is shown at £4,307 for 2010, which is an awful lot of letters sent, more than 11,000 first class letters sent at standard first class postage or over 11,000 magazine type mailings with Royal Mail discounts), but there is no postage shown in 2009. The accounts show a lot of blanks under 2009, bearing in mind the PPD project started in March, including packaging, wages and salaries, NI, staff training, rent, light & heat, stationery & printing, software and postage as a few examples.    

The accounts state that during the year the company suffered trading deficits that were partially supported by revenue grant aid. The directors have reviewed the forecast of trading deficits and believe that these will be supported by ongoing grant support which has been confirmed to them by Welsh Assembly Government. The directors believe that the company will continue to trade for the foreseeable future and that the going concern basis remains appropriate. The company received a grant advance of £93,906 from Welsh Assembly Government in 2009 to be repaid from all future grant aid dependant on continued trading performance.   

Administrative expenses shown for 2010

Employee costs:                £

Wages/salaries               70,435   

Employers NI                    6,647

Staff training & welfare       825

Travel & subsistence       2,208

Motor expenses                   399

Entertaining                      1,330

I’m still unsure of how many staff PPD is employing, or if staff numbers have been reduced since the project started, but £70k on salaries is extra-ordinarily high based against performance. Reading through these accounts again though, it appears that the salaries and NI shown, are from March 2009 as well as 2010.  

I am being told many tales about PPD, what I’m interested in knowing is which people put this initial project together and what they think of PPD performance so far…………………….

Thanks for those of you that have put up your comments on welshfoodbites, and the huge support we have had from our Best Of Welsh & Borders producers.  I’ve said before and shall repeat again, if you wish to put up your comments, no-one will know who you are, unless you wish to put your full name to your views.  The only person that will know is me, and I certainly will not reveal person’s identity. As always, you have my assurance on that.  

 

 
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Food Hall At Royal Welsh

12 Jul

I have just received a press release from the Welsh Government showing which food producers are going to be in Food Hall this year. Fifty producers are listed, but of these only 26 appear to be True Taste winners. True Taste winners is he Welsh Government’s top selection criteria, followed by products must be made in Wales and raw materials are primary agricultural produce.

The press release doesn’t say that the Welsh Government is disappointed that they’ve only attracted 26 True Taste winners, but I think if I was them I would be. True Taste (TT) is being pushed and promoted by Wag as their ‘brand’. They have invested or wasted, depending on your view of course, oodles and oodles of cash on their ‘brand’. But it’s puzzling as to why Wag can’t fill the Food Hall with TT winners, for what many view as the highlight of the Welsh year – The Royal Welsh Show.

Is the high cost of the RWAS that’s the main reason? Or is something else going on that I don’t know about? If you can shed any light on this please let me know.

 
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Festival Criteria Is Very Shaky

28 Jun

The situation on festivals is shaky and that’s being polite. I have never had so much criticism about the way Wag have set out their criteria and then allowed some festivals to ignore it. As expected this year, festival funding has been slashed to £368,521.36 and only 31 festivals are being supported. Last year 57 festivals were supported with a budget of £529,125,70. With such budget slash, I think most people would have expected Wag to have applied just a little commonsense as to how they could give the taxpayer best-value–for-money by making best use of the funding they’ve been allocated. First Minister Carwyn Jones said: “Indeed, it is estimated that the overall economic impact of Welsh food festivals on their host communities is annually as much as £20.3m. There is a positive knock-on effect on employment in rural areas too with around 1,125 jobs linked to food festivals”.

I’m unsure whether Mr Jones is saying these figures are from last year when he funded 57 events with nearly £530k and the economic impact of £20.3m. Well £20.3m is no mean figure, so why then with such a strong economic impact, has our festival budget been slashed so harshly that Wag is now only funding 31 festivals instead of 57. Isn’t that surely going to reduce the effect of the economic impact, not to mention the impact of 1,125 jobs? I wish my limited brain power could get to grips with political thinking.    

I’ve heard so many times from Wag’s higher management that they want food festivals to be self-supporting, so if that’s the case, why are the three largest festivals: Abergavenny, (£52k) Cardiff (£37,550) and Conwy (£41k), being given nearly £131k out of this year’s budget? All these three festivals applied for the same amount of money they received last year and got it – no budget cuts there – but why not? In 08/09, Abergavenny got £37,360, Cardiff £30k and Conwy £24,665, so Wag’s self-supporting theory, is obviously that, theory. Whilst in practice these three festivals have had increasing money thrown into their rather large pots. Any chance Wag that you can clarify your self-supporting theory? 

Wag’s criteria for this year, insists that festivals have ‘food as the core activity.’

An easy example of this was that the Smallholder was shown the red card by Wag, even though Steve Shearman had been asked years ago to run this event for them. But panic not, there will be a Food Hall at the RWAS or the Winter Fair, as Wag runs both these events and funds them out of a different budget. Please don’t ask me how much those two events cost as the only way I’d get a partial answer will be to send through a Freedom Of Information question again, but a partial answer doesn’t solve the problem. 

Crymch Food & Craft festival, which has run for years, has decided not to run this year because of the, ‘food as the core activity’. Even though their food and craft were held in two separate areas, they guessed wouldn’t fund it. However Llandysul, which as far as I’m aware has had a similar split of food and craft stalls, ran again this year and were funded by Wag £9k, a reduction of £500.00 on last year. Now how can this anomaly have occurred? Wag gave Abergavenny based Miller Research, the task of visiting all their funded festivals and reporting back to them. I’ve asked for a copy of this report as I know a producer has too, but despite the fact that the organisers had their copies months ago, I’m still waiting for mine. Does that mean my copy might be edited before I get it? So how did Wag make their decisions this year? As food was not the core activity in Llandysul in previous years, why were they funded again this year? What did the Miller Research report say about Llandysul and who made the final decision for it to be funded again?

I had a press release yesterday from Hay on Wye festival, which is excellent, because despite 31 festivals being funded I shall be lucky to get 10 press releases in total from them. If festivals don’t send out press releases, they cannot possibly get any publicity and if they don’t get publicity where do the visitors come from. Festival organisers have a duty to the producers to ensure that they do their utmost to generate publicity and get people through their gates. I’m fed-up of hearing from organisers that ‘they don’t have an advertising budget’ what is core accurate is that they haven’t allocated money to advertise their event, but instead spending money on expensive chefs and aren’t bothering to tell their traders what they are doing. Traders pay their money up front and in good faith and organisers should communicate with them their plans for their event. Anyway back to Hay press releases, in the first paragraph it said busy event and estimated 4,000 people there and in the second paragraph at least 5,000 people. Well guess you can take your choice but it does raise two issues, who counted all those people as I understand it’s a free event and where on earth in Hay did all those people manage to park their cars?            

You only have to read welshfoodbites to see what massive interest and concern there is about food festivals. Regular readers will know that Wag Food Press Office have since March, refused to answer any questions from me, in case I blog it and upset as they say they have no right of reply! Well I’ve had had to remind them that when Wag food were working with us in 2008 and 2009 there was no negative food news at all published in Welsh Country magazine. Yet behind the scenes, that was a different matter. No-one should under-estimate the amount of hard work that was going behind the scenes whilst my team tried to get some communication going between the food producers and Wag. The Press Office then told me not to talk to Wag officials directly, but to talk to them. When that system didn’t work too well, I decided to create welshfoodbites in July 2010. Initially the idea was to use it for questions I wasn’t getting answers to, but in effect it has provided a forum for all foodies to air their views and ask their questions.

As far as Welsh Country is concerned, Wag sadly has now had negative coverage. We were waiting and waiting for the list of food festivals which was promised, but again did not arrive so that was published. I have no intention at all of apologizing for doing this, in fact Wag should be very grateful I haven’t devoted pages of welshfoodbites in every issue of Welsh Country. My reason for not doing so is not to save their blushes, because in the world of Wag, nothing is ever wrong. Wag appear to work under the B.S.E. rule, Blame Someone Else. The only reason, so far that I’m holding back is that I feel I should try and paint a picture of positivity in our Welsh food world. The only worry for Wag now is my pot of paint is running very, very low ……………………..……..

 
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Welshfoodbites Versus True Taste TV – Website Rankings

17 Jun

 As of today, our rankings for welshfoodbites is @ 303,880 – source Alexa Rankings over a 3 month period, whilst Wag’s True Taste TV is way down below us @ 2,111,071.

If I were Wag Food, I’d be very concerned, especially after they took down their other food website, Wales the True Taste, WTT, on 1st April. Sorry but can’t resist the April Fools Day parody, because who with any computer web know-how, would pull down a website? Had no-one thought about working behind the original site? I’m amazed and horrified that nearly 3 months later, WTT is still not back up and running. So the difficult question for you is, any idea who is doing the re-build? Mmmmmmm, well that didn’t take long, so well done you smart people – you’re right – Wag are doing it themselves!

Now though, back to rankings. The traffic from WTT has been re-directed to Wag’s other food website, True Taste TV, which I assumed would have had twice the traffic through, especially as they have been asking for True Taste entries via the website, but why are their rankings still so poor for a site that has been running for what seems like forever. If Wag Food were a business, this would not be acceptable and could not continue, but I’m talking about the real world guys, aren’t I?    

Wag should be horrified with both their food website performances. Mind you, I’m sure deep down, they are impressed with our welshfoodbites rankings, they just don’t want to make a fuss about it!

So can I just send my thanks to you for your support, not just for welshfoodbites but for Welsh Country magazine too. We are making a huge difference, despite the many Wag barriers we have to knock down to get anywhere.

 
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Does Wales Know Where It’s Going, Or Even Where It’s Been?

17 Jun

The Retail Sales Index recently showed a 3.5% decrease in food sales in the month of May as compared to last year. The Retail Sales Index is a monthly inquiry into retail sales and this is  sample survey carried out by the Office for National Statistics on 5,000 businesses in Great Britain. It includes all large retailers and a representative sample of smaller businesses.

The quoted comment was “Predominantly food stores sales volumes decreased this month, with a decrease of 3.5 in May 2011 compared to May 2010. This follows last months brief respite from contraction. Within predominantly non-food stores, there was volume growth across all sectors apart from household goods stores which fell for a fourth consecutive month to 6.0 per cent. Non-store retailing again saw the largest volume growth between May 2010 and May 2011 with an increase of 19.0 per cent.”

On the other hand, the British Retail Consortium, which is generally taken as representative of the High Street Multiples including the supermarkets, say that “Food Sales slowed markedly after April’s strong growth” but is still 1.9% up on a weighted 3 month average compared to a year ago. 

So do we presume from this that smaller retailers are suffering more than the ‘big boys’?

But what does this mean to Wales? I tried in vain to fine any statistics about food sales in Wales, either year on year, month on month, multiple retailers compared to direct sales, but to no avail. But bear in mind that Wag’s Food Press Office still refuse to answer my questions so this was not an easy challenge!

Wales has had an Assembly for 10 years and food, as part of Rural Affairs, is a devolved area of government (but food has now been demoted in that it only justifies a Deputy Minister). Why, as a government don’t we have these figures published for all to scrutinise and evaluate and then allow us to adjust our businesses so that they move forward and grow?  

So much money is being put into food promotion, so would it not be a good idea to find out where we are so that we can measure what effect this money is having?

If a privately owned business sector put millions of pounds* into it as a project, would they not have an accurate financial figure from where to start, as well as a target to meet that could be accurately measured? Whilst of course, being constantly monitored and adjusted along the way?

Many of our Government ideas are good, but they appear to be spending millions of pounds on ticking boxes instead of ensuring that each process has a substantial benefit to the farmers, growers, producers and food retailers down the line. Surely this should be a basic business role.

Your comments and feedback are invaluable and can I say again that any comments left on welshfoodbites are anonymous and will stay so – the only person who will know, is me and I promise you it will remain that way.

* Millions of pounds is derived from the monies spent on Food projects from the RDP and True Taste, but again accurate spending is difficult if not impossible to find.

 
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WAG Axe Falls On Aberystwyth Christmas Fair

02 Jun

I had a phone call yesterday from a producer asking why Aber Fair had been axed. He wasn’t one of our Best Of Welsh & Borders members, so wasn’t aware of the furore that’s been going on and the difficulties we’ve had even obtaining this year’s dates from the Welsh Assembly Government, Wag. Apparently he’d read a piece in his local paper and was very upset that this fair was not now going ahead.

Ceredigion Council have said that as Wag are now not going to fund the £4,200 that the event got last year, it could not go ahead in it’s current form.  Wag has funded this event for eleven years. In 08/09 Aber received £3,840 and in 09/10 £4.000. However this year Aber has fallen foul of Wag’s new ruling that states: ‘all events supported will have food activity as the core’. Culture, tourism, arts, crafts and Christmas markets now do not qualify for Wag support. The Council state that last year’s poor weather badly affected the Christmas Fair, but in 2009 the event attracted over 4,000 people. I really do disagree with the Council on numbers for 09, how, if the event is free, do they get even a rough number count? Am I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering where Aber managed to find parking for such a number of cars, it’s difficult enough on an ordinary Saturday!! However I’m told that of 46 stalls, only eight were non-food. So I’ll continue to stick to what I have been saying for some time which is that that craft stalls do add interest to a food event. The longer people stay at an event the better. Of course I can understand that Wag feel that are then supporting craft, but maybe a compromise is that crafters pay more for their stands. But to drop support for this event because of 8 craft stalls is childish and short sighted and is certainly not supporting food and producers.

Whilst this dispute was raging Ceredigion AM Elin Jones slammed Wag’s decision saying that the festival gave important support to local producers. She then went on the political bandwagon, trying to shame Labour on cutting back support for local food festivals. Well I’m not in total agreement there but do accpet that I haven’t all the facts but it’s not for the lack of trying, is it? I’ve been asking for a list of the festivals Wag were supporting in January and was told I couldn’t have the list until the end of March. Then, at end of March I was told I couldn’t have the list now as we were in ‘a pre-election period’. So my thinking is that this list was already done and agreed, and who was the Minister responsible for signing this off? Step forward Elin Jones…………

We then had our elections on 5th May and I received Wag’s funded festival list on 13th May. I’m not sure if you think in just over a week; Wag started from scratch with the new Labour team, made their decisions, informed the organisers and then told the media. I don’t think so as the organsiers were told I believe on the 6th May. I think all decisions were made whilst Elin was still in ministerial power and were rubber-stamped by Labour, but we’ll see what else we can find out about this………………………

Of course budgets have to be slashed, there isn’t a choice because as a nation we are broke|. But who agrees to Conwy and Abergavenny getting the same amounts as last year, no cuts for them let alone even a reduction for two huge festivals who can get sponsors in, whilst Aber gets axed for £4k? Has Wag changed it’s mind about getting festivals to be self-supporting? It must have, because otherwise wouldn’t these two have had their funding requests reduced at least?   

Wag have apparently responded by saying that with a reduced budget and the evaluation of food festivals taken over last two years, then to make the best use of resources it was decided that events where food was not the core activity would not receive funding. For those of you not up to speed, last year Miller Research from Abergavenny, were asked to visit all Wag supported festivals and evaluate what they were doing. Most organisers I have spoken to have received their copy of the Miller report, but I’m still waiting for Wag to send through my copy. I have been told that Crymych Food & Craft Fair also fell foul of the new no -craft rule so that event is also not running this year. Lampeter was also told by Miller that they had too many craft stands, even though the craft stands are set in a different part on the Lampeter University grounds, plus a new festival in Newcastle Emlyn was told ‘no craft or no funding’.

I also wonder if this ‘no craft or no funding’ was made clear at the organisers meeting in February, otherwise surely this issue could have been clarified and sorted then and not left until now. I’m sure Jan Fenner who organises the Aber fairs and markets would have been there, but why that didn’t happen is rather puzzling.

Ceredigion County Council are appealing Wag’s decision and I look forward not only to hearing the outcome, but an explanation too!!!

Food Festival funding has been a hot topic on welshfoodbites so  please check out posts around March this year for more background.

 
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Success For Welsh Food At Smallholder

23 May

Congratualtions to Steve Shearman from Farmer’s Markets in Wales, who put on a great show in the old Food Hall at the Smallholder show this weekend. As already posted, I had expected to find the producers in the new Food Hall, but was relieved to find that sector busy and some relatively producers on Sunday when I visited.

What really made me very angry was the fact that this event received no funding from the WAG, the Welsh Assembly Government.  I’ve no idea who told me, but I knew that Steve attended the festival organisers meeting in February, but I couldn’t work out why. The funding for this event has not, to my knowledge, ever come from Wag’s festival funded budget.  If I’m wrong, then it’s been left of the list I have received from Wag for the last four years. So as this funding has always come from another budget, which budget was it from? My next question is why has this funding been withdrawn and who made that decision?

I’m not sure whether you would label this event as a Food Festival or a Farmer’s Market, but the label is irrelevant. What is relevant and is very important, is that thisevent was actually a celebration of Welsh food at its best and surely this is what Wag (Food) should be promoting.  This year Wag’s criteria for festivals they are supporting is that they ‘will have food activity as the core. Therefore events such as Agricultural Shows with a food hall or events that use a food hall as an additional attraction will not normally be eligible’. What normally be eligible means must qualify as ‘Wag speak’ which makes us none the wiser…………….so can anyone clarify that statement please. I feel that maybe it means that Wag will continue to do as is pleases, regradless of the consequences.

As an example of my confusion, can I remind you that I attended Saundersfoot in March this year and counted 18 food stands, plus a cookery demo area and 9 craft stands. This festival got funding again this year, around £8k, but according to Wag they should have had 20 food producers. Did anyone attned from Wag and if so does that mean this funding is now reduced? Saundersfoot have also been awarded funding for 2012 but with a lesser amount of £5,006.35.

But back to the Smallholder event which had over 40 of our best producers on show, got no financial support at all, due to Wag’s change of criteria. Wag’s other big push as far as food festivals are concerned, is that huge prominence is made of True Taste Food and Drink Awards winners. I won’t bore you again with my views on True Taste, but check out my post on 22nd November and let me know what you think. The financial headache that no funding caused this event meant that stand prices had to be doubled, bad news for the producers in this economic climate, but there was absolutely no choice if this was to go ahead. I cannot imagine the Smallholder without Steve Shearman’s market and our offering to our visitors is bog-standard fast food vans with little if any local  food.

This event was a success despite Wag’s childish behavouir, they even had a covered area on one side where Steve had put seating so people could enjoy some great coffee, food, ice-cream and a chance to rest and chat with family and friends.

Carwyn Jones, our First Minister says, “I am delighted the Welsh Assembly Government has been able to continue to support food and drink festivals across Wales.”

Well Mr Jones and Wag, I’m not happy that I don’t understand what has happened to the Smallholder funding and why Wag (Food) don’t put their onus on Welsh food first and True Taste second – if you can improve the standard and variety of local producers you’ll of course improve the entries for the True Taste. Please explain to me why this event had to run without financial support from Wag bearing in mind RWAS say 26,026 attended over the two days. This is yet another instance where Wag need to wake-up and understand what is actually happening in Wales with our food producers.

 
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When Is A Food Hall Not A Food Hall?

23 May

When there’s no food in it!

But welcome to the Royal Welsh Smallholder & Garden Festival, which ran from 21 – 22 May as the new Food Hall housed the Green Horizons (Eco) Exhibition. Sadly some traders who understood they’d paid to be part of that event, were instead put into the Members Restaurant, where there was a distinct lack of customer throughput and for many traders a waste of two days trading.    

As reported here on 21st July 2010 at the Royal Welsh, amid great pomp and trumpet fanfare, Rural Minister Elin Jones officially opened the new Food Hall on the showground announcing a new deal between  the Welsh Assembly Government, WAG ,and the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society, RWAS, to manage the £1.6m food hall. I am told that WAG will financially support the Food Hall with £300,000 over the next three years, which means RWAS will be paid £100k per year for WAG to run two food events, the Royal Welsh and the Winter Fair.  So that’s why no food in there this time but to the visitors it looks totally stupid to have this new, expensvie Food Hall – but without food in it.  Although that’s the latest figure I’ve heard, I’m sure that this isn’t the only money Wag is putting into the RWAS.

 
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Festival Listing Received From Welsh Assembly Government

13 May

After working long and hard to get a listing of food festivals that Welsh Assembly Government, WAG are supporting this year, I’m pleased to tell you – we have now been sent it. To help all those that have been asking us for this news, you’ll find the full press release at the end of this post. For those of you supporting us as members of ‘Best Of Welsh & Borders,’ plus ‘Eating Out’ and ‘Stay Awhile’ you’ll have been emailed it this morning. 

WAG’s press release states that they are supporting 31 food festivals this year, with funding of £350,000. Last year they supported 57 festivals with a £529,125.70 budget. Although we are not suprised with a cut in  funding, this is huge reduction which has had a dramatic effect on the number of festivals going ahead in 2011/12. Visitor numbers have not been quoted for last year despite a food festival survey being undertaken.  Instead it states simply thousands, but with supported festivals down nearly 50% it’s not good new for producers who rely so heavily on these festivals as their main route to market. I find this situation worrying but how do you all feel? Please add your comments as I do enjoy your feedback, and don’t worry, you don’t have to give your real name or company, it’s private and therefore easy to be honest without worrying about any repercussions.

Interesting that after all this fuss, that WAG have sent through this year the amounts each festival is getting because if you remember last year I was told this inforamtion was not in the public domain. What rubbish. I have today got my offical response through Freedom Of Information Act - why I have had to go through all this effort to get it appears to be one of WAG Food’s games, and they have now said that this information in now IN the public domain. So yes we have made progress and I hope WAG are pleased with themselves for wasting not just my time but theirs too.  

I have been told by WAG that they wish food festivals to eventually be self-supporting, but how can this be true when many festivals are getting the same, or more funding than they have had over the last 3 years. It’s annoying especially when some of these festivals do have the means to attract decent outside sponsorship.  Does anyone understand how this festival funding sytem works?

WAG Press Release:

Welsh Food & Drink Festivals Funding List 

More than 30 food and drink festivals the length and breadth of Wales are between them to receive over £350,000 in support from the Welsh Assembly Government. The 31 festivals – large and small – feature a wide range of products and are an important showcase for producers and Welsh produce among who are many Wales the True Taste Food and Drink Awards winners.

Said Carwyn Jones, First Minister of Wales, “I am delighted the Welsh Assembly Government has been able to continue to support food and drink festivals across Wales. During 2011/12 the festivals will collectively receive £368,521.36 in assistance, signifying their importance to the economy and Wales’ reputation as a producer of high quality and diverse food and drink. They attract thousands of visitors each year, and I look forward to being among them.”

Food festivals play an important role in the local economy attracting visitors and providing a showcase for producers. Indeed, it is estimated that the overall economic impact of Welsh food festivals on their host communities is annually as much as £20.3m. There is a positive knock-on effect on employment in rural areas too with around 1,125 jobs linked to food festivals. Food festivals in Wales have an important effect on developing food culture in Wales for both visitors and local people, raising awareness of the wide variety of produce available throughout the country.

Research undertaken by the Welsh Assembly Government over the last two years into the benefits of food festivals has shown a diverse range of impacts achieved not only economically, but also educating consumers about where their food comes from and the benefits of buying direct from the producer.

Food Festivals supported by the Welsh Assembly Government

2011

Gorseinon Food Festival (16 April) Gorseinon, Swansea:  £7,849.90  

Welsh Perry & Cider Festival (27 – 30 May) Clytha Arms near Abergavenny: £1,492.70      

Llŷn Land & Seafood Festival (28 – 29 May) Pwllheli Marina: £9,000.00   

Gŵyl Fwyd Castell Newydd Emlyn (18 June) Newcastle Emlyn: £5,089.24    

Hay-On-Wye Food Festival (25 June) Hay-On-Wye: £3,600.00   

Llandysul Food Festival (25 June) Llandysul: £9,074.18   

Carmarthen Journal Buy Local Food & Drink Show (June/Jul) Carmarthen Town Centre: £8,015.50   

Cardiff International Food & Drink Festival (8 – 10 July) Cardiff: £37,500.00   

Cardigan Bay Seafood Festival (10 July) Aberaeron Harbour: £9,500.00 

Lampeter Food Festival (23 July) University of Wales, Lampeter:  £9,516.25    

The Really Wild Food & Countryside Festival (29 – 30 July) Whitesands Rd, St Davids:  £9,800.00      

Big Welsh Bite (5 – 7 August) Pontypridd: £16,012.45     

Cardigan River and Food Festival (6 August) Cardigan: £9,995.00   

Haverfordwest Beer, Cider, Perry and Local Produce Festival (27 – 28 August) Haverfordwest Castle: £4,648.64    

Brecon Beacons Summer Fayre (27 – 29 August) National Park, Brecon:  £4,480.00      

Welsh Food Festival 2011 (3 – 4 September) Glansevern Hall, Welshpool: £7,500.00    

Gŵyl Fwyd Blas Tywi (10 – 11 September) Llandeilo: £5,612.69     

Aberystwyth Food and Drink Festival (17 September) Baker St, Aberystwyth:  £8,239.76      

Abergavenny Food Festival (17 – 18 September) Abergavenny: £52,200.00   

The Mold Food and Drink Festival (24 – 25 September) Mold: £16,100.00

Narberth Food Festival (23 – 25 Sept) Town Moor, Narberth: £9,999.00   

The Great British Cheese Festival (23 – 25 Sept) Cardiff Castle:£15,000.00   

Feastival (Bridgend) (30 Sept – 1 Oct) Bridgend: £9,950.00     

Brecon Beacons Food Festival (1 October) Market Hall, Brecon: £6,300.00   

Neath Food and Drink Festival (7 – 8 October) Neath: £9,999.00  

Anglesey Oyster and Welsh Produce Festival (8 – 9 October) Trearddur Bay, Anglesey: £2,875.00      

Gwledd Conwy Feast (20-23 October) Conwy: £41,000.00   

Newport Food Festival (28 – 30 October) Newport Town Centre: £15,171.70    

Cowbridge Food and Drink Festival (29 – 30 October) Cowbridge: £9,990.00 

2012

Get Welsh in Swansea Food and Drink Show (25 Feb or 3 March) Swansea: £8,004.00      

Saundersfoot St David’s Day Festival (3 – 4 March) Saundersfoot: £5,006.35

 
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